Subsea facilities used for oil and gas production and operations may include numerous pipe designs and connectors to connect units of subsea equipment together. Depending on the size of facilities, hundreds of feet of pipe may be used for connecting units of the subsea equipment, and through which fluid from production or other operations may flow. For example, a fluid flowing through the subsea equipment may include water produced along with hydrocarbons, commonly referred to as water cut. Water cut may be from seawater that is injected into a well to maintain reservoir pressure and then produced back. When the right combination of high pressure and low temperature is present, such as in deep water subsea facilities with high pressure in the equipment in the bore and low temperature environments, the mixture of produced water and hydrocarbons has the potential to form hydrates, which may form blockages in the production system.
During production, the produced fluid may flow from the well and into subsea equipment along the sea floor at a temperature well above the hydrate formation temperature. As the fluid continues to flow to a surface facility, the fluid may not have time to cool, and thus hydrate formation may not occur. However, during periods of shutdown or fluid flow stoppage, the produced fluid that remains trapped in the production equipment located above the floor of the ocean may be cooled by the surrounding seawater, which may be at temperatures close to freezing. When the fluid is cooled below hydrate formation temperature, hydrates may form in the fluid, which solidify and may cause a blockage.
Insulation around the subsea equipment has been used to delay the cooling of the hydrocarbon fluid in order to allow time to remediate the well and prevent or reduce hydrate formation.